In the related art, various types of vehicle roof apparatuses are proposed (for example, JP 2012-71717A (Reference 1), JP 2012-111284A (Reference 2), and the like). These vehicle roof apparatuses include a support member that supports a movable panel, the support member rotates about a front portion of the movable panel in a completely closed state as a pivot point, which causes the movable panel to perform a tilting up operation, or the support member moves in a vehicle front-rear direction in a tilted up state of the movable panel, which causes the movable panel to perform an opening/closing operation.
That is, a shoe supported on a guide rail is rotatably connected to the front portion of the support member. The shoe has a pair of shoe portions disposed on both sides in a vehicle width direction such that the support member is interposed therebetween. These shoe portions are mounted on the guide rail and thereby, the support member is rotatable with respect to the guide rail and is movable along the guide rail in the vehicle front-rear direction.
In the vehicle roof apparatus, the shoe has the pair of shoe portions and thus, mounting spaces for the shoe portions need to be secured on the guide rail. Therefore, the guide rail has to be increased in size in the vehicle width direction and an opening width is decreased in the direction equivalent to the amount of an increase of the space occupied by the guide rail in the vehicle width direction.